Georgia Historic Newspapers

Hood, Jack, & Company established the Rome Weekly Commercial in late 1865 in Rome, Georgia. Much like the Rome Courier, the Rome Commercial supported the Democratic Party, and the two newspapers competed for subscribers for the next eleven years. D. M. Hood and M. A. Nevin were editors of the Commercial, and by 1868 they were the only owners. That same year, the success of the Commercial’s weekly edition prompted them to expand by adding a tri-weekly edition. In 1869, Hood sold his half interest to southern humorist and former Rome mayor Charles Henry Smith. Smith, who became popular for his satirical wartime letters, wrote under the Bill Arp pseudonym, and he carried that pseudonym with him to the Commercial. In July 1870, newspaper legend Henry W. Grady partnered with his brother Will S. Grady and Colonel J. F. Shanklin to purchase the Commercial, which by that time circulated daily. Henry Grady’s departure from the Rome Courier was so abrupt that his name appeared as editor on both the Courier and the Commercial in their respective July 1870 issues. After two years of owning the Commercial, Henry Grady found himself in significant debt, and he sold the paper back to Smith and Nevin in November 1872. Grady then departed for Atlanta where he purchased a third interest of the Atlanta Herald. The Rome Commercial continued both its daily and weekly editions until April 1876 when Captain Melville Dwinnell purchased the newspaper and folded it into his competing newspaper, the Rome Courier. In the Courier’s April 11, 1876 issue, Dwinnell gave notice to Rome Commercial subscribers that they would now receive the Courier instead. Since Dwinnell’s paper did not have a daily edition, subscribers of the Rome Daily Commercial received the Rome Tri-Weekly Courier instead. Dwinnell remained owner of the Courier before selling it in January 1885. The new publisher renamed the paper the Tribune of Rome in October 1887. The Tribune merged with the Rome Herald in 1908 and the Rome News in 1923 to become the Rome News-Tribune, which continues publication to the present day.

Provided by: Digital Library of Georgia